Golfer Yoon Ina banned for three years after playing wrong ball

Yoon Ina plays her second shot on the 10th hole during the first round of the Hoban Seoul Shinmun Women's classic at H1 Club in Icheon, Gyeonggi on July 22. [KLPGA]

Korean golfer Yoon Ina has been suspended from all KLPGA tournaments for the next three years.

The decision comes after Yoon released a statement on July 25 admitting that she played the wrong golf ball on the 15th hole during the first round of the DB Group Korea Women's Open Golf Championship on June 16.

The KLPGA Reward and Punishment Subcommittee decided to suspend Yoon for three years on Tuesday according to Chapter 3 of Article 15 of the disciplinary rules, which states that players will be suspended for a lack of sportsmanship or disreputable behavior.

The subcommittee also stated that they took into consideration that while Yoon did voluntarily report herself, she did not inform the KLPGA of the violation until long after it happened.

"We will continue to deal sternly with similar incidents," read a KLPGA statement released Tuesday.

That Yoon played the wrong ball means that after her tee shot, she continued to play the hole with another ball — presumably one that fell in a more advantageous position than her own — to finish the hole. Following her announcement, Yoon voluntarily withdrew from the remainder of the KLPGA season.

Yoon's most recent competition was the Hoban Seoul Shinmun Women's classic that finished on July 14, where she tied for 15th.

Yoon's agency released a statement on July 25 saying that Yoon was first accused on July 14 of playing the wrong ball during the first round of the Korea Women's Open. On July 15, Yoon admitted in a voluntary report to the Korea Golf Association that she had done so. On July 18, Yoon was retroactively disqualified from the Korea Women's Open, although she had failed to make the cut at the tournament anyway.

When Yoon was first accused on July 14 of playing the wrong ball during the Korea Women's Open, she was in the middle of playing the first round of the Evercollagen Queens Crown 2022, which she went on to win three days later, her first-ever KLPGA title.

According to the statement on July 25, Yoon on June 16 was looking for her ball on the 15th hole of the first round of the Korea Women's Open after her tee shot flew to the right of the fairway. She says she was told by people around her that a ball that was found inside the deep rough was hers. Yoon, who was playing her rookie season this year, acknowledged that she realized shortly after that it wasn't her ball but kept on playing because she did not know what to do, having never been in a similar situation before.

Yoon will be able to appeal the decision for the next 15 days.

BY YUN SO-HYANG [yun.sohyang@joongang.co.kr]